


mistlefoe

by redexo



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Office, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Humor, Office Party, an attempt at secret santa, but like lowkey, but uglier according to heejin, hyunjin is like the grinch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28454169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redexo/pseuds/redexo
Summary: “Alright, now that you’re both here, I have something to tell you.”Hyunjin frowns, wondering what exactly Haseul needed from the both of them. Does she need to ask them some things for the annual report they send to corporate? Has one of their co-workers finally complained about the mini prank war that’s been going on? Did she want the two of them to work on a new project together?She blanches at the last possibility, thinking that there’s nothing worse than having to work on a project, much less working on a project with Jeon Heejin.“You guys are the Chosen Ones this year!”Hyunjin’s eyes widen in horror as soon as she processes the words, knowing the exact meaning behind them and wishing she didn’t. She takes it all back — she’d rather do a project. She’d rather doa hundredprojects instead of this.-Or, Hyunjin and Heejin, sworn enemies, are chosen to organize this year's company Christmas party.
Relationships: Jeon Heejin/Kim Hyunjin
Comments: 25
Kudos: 272





	mistlefoe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dancingqxxeen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dancingqxxeen/gifts).



> the title is stolen from that one tumblr post lol

“Hey, did you see—”

Hyunjin holds up her hand, effectively cutting off the other person, and says, “I didn’t have any coffee today.” It’s code for: _if you breathe a single word about how wonderful Sooyoung’s ass looks in her pantsuit, I will smash this keyboard over your head._

Hyunjin doesn’t have anger issues. It’s just a Monday.

“But it’s my favorite pantsuit,” Jinsol whines, crossing her arms with a pout that makes her seem more like a petulant child than the grown woman she really is.

Hyunjin’s left eye twitches dangerously as her fingers curl around the edges of her keyboard. “I can’t listen to you wax poetic sentences about Sooyoung until I have caffeine.”

“But the coffee machine’s still broken.”

“Exactly.”

Jinsol groans. “Did we ever find out who broke it?”

The coffee machine has been broken for an entire week now, and Hyunjin legitimately thinks she’s suffering from withdrawal. She practically lives on coffee and bread while in the office, and to have one of those taken away is almost too much for her to handle. She’s been stopping by McDonalds before work so she has at least a little caffeine in her body for the day, but it snowed today and she didn’t have time to even drive through a fucking fast food joint because she was too busy scraping ice off her windshield with an empty water bottle.

The memory of her numb fingers desperately trying to keep a good grip on the plastic brings a scowl to her face. She hates winter with a passion. It’s too cold to be anywhere but her bed and the holiday cheer that infects everyone seems to have skipped over Hyunjin. 

She also hates the person who broke the coffee machine and _still_ hasn’t replaced it with every fiber in her body. No one has fessed up yet, but Hyunjin’s already narrowed it down to a couple of likely people in the office.

_Suspect Number 1: Kim Jiwoo._

_Reason:_ Jiwoo is literally a walking disaster, and Hyunjin has no trouble picturing her knocking the coffee machine to the floor and breaking it. Especially if she’s in heels on that particular day.

 _Defense:_ If Jiwoo had done it, she probably would’ve screamed loud enough for everyone in the building to hear, then immediately replaced it because she has a conscience, unlike most of the people here. So it’s probably not her.

_Suspect Number 2: Jo Haseul._

_Reason:_ Simply put, Haseul is a nightmare with technology. How she got to be the boss of everyone here, Hyunjin will never know. She could’ve broken the coffee machine just simply by being in the vicinity.

 _Defense:_ Hyunjin isn’t sure if their coffee machine could even be considered technology in this day and age. It’s horribly old, so old that Hyunjin thinks that it’s something that’s been passed down from generation to generation since the day the building was built. So Haseul’s curse with technology might not be the culprit. Plus, she’s an avid Mountain Dew drinker, so there’s no reason for her to even be near the coffee machine.

_Suspect Number 3: Son Hyejoo._

_Reason:_ Hyejoo would punch the machine, no questions asked. She’d do it if the machine wasn’t working, if it was a dare, hell, she’d do it just because she could get away with it.

 _Defense:_ Hyejoo needs coffee to live almost as much as Hyunjin does. The two of them have actually been bonding over the caffeine withdrawal. It’s unlikely she could go this long without breaking down and buying a new machine herself. 

_Suspect Number 4: Jeon Heejin._

_Reason:_ It’s Jeon Heejin. The reasons are endless.

 _Defense:_ There is no defense. Hyunjin is certain she’s guilty. She can feel it in her gut, and her gut is always right.

She tells all this to Jinsol, even going as far as to draw up a little chart on a sticky note just to be thorough. Jinsol simply rolls her eyes and crumples it into a tiny ball, much to Hyunjin’s horror. “You have no reason for Heejin being a suspect but you still think she did it?”

“I can’t live without coffee,” Hyunjin hisses, deadly serious. “Heejin knows this already and is determined to ruin my life. The coffee machine breaking wasn’t an accident, it was a _planned murder.”_

“You’re being dramatic. What’s your deal with Heejin anyway?”

“I’ve told you the story a million times—”

“Is that seriously why? You don’t even know if it was her.”

“It was,” Hyunjin answers sharply.

Jinsol holds her hands up in surrender, fully aware she touched a sore spot for Hyunjin. Before she can say anything else, Hyunjin’s desk phone begins to ring, making her frown. Being in the accounting department means she never has to deal with phone calls — that was more for the sales department. There’s no reason why anyone should be calling her.

She stares at it suspiciously for another moment before picking it up. “Hello?”

_“Haseul wants you in her office.”_

Hyunjin blinks and turns to stare at Hyejoo, whose desk is barely twenty feet away and most definitely within talking distance. “We’re in the same room,” she deadpans. “Did you really have to call me?”

Hyejoo’s response is to hang up the phone.

Hyunjin rolls her eyes. Even after all these years of working together, she still wonders how Hyejoo got the secretary position. All she does is sit at her desk and play video games on her computer, and it’s not like she’s exactly the most welcoming person in the building.

“I gotta go,” she says to Jinsol, standing from her chair and stretching, her body making many more pops and cracks than it’s supposed to. God, she hates these office chairs. “The big boss has called me to her office.”

“For what?”

“Dunno. Last time I went up there, she showed me these cat videos for like, thirty minutes and kept saying they reminded her of me.”

“Oh.” Jinsol tilts her head, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. “Cool. I guess I don’t need to wish you good luck on not getting fired?”

Hyunjin grins. “I doubt I’ll need it.” 

  
  


As Hyunjin sits across the desk from Haseul, she quickly runs through the past month in her mind for the third time, wondering if she actually _did_ do anything bad enough to be fired. Other than that one incident concerning a stray cat that frequented the alleyway outside their work building last month, she comes up with nothing. She has no idea why she’s been sitting here for the past twenty minutes while Haseul clicks away on her computer and hums a Christmas song underneath her breath.

At least the chairs in here are comfy. Hyunjin has half a mind to steal one of them for her own cubicle. Haseul doesn’t need _four_ of them when there’s only one of her. It’s totally unfair. She sinks lower in it and feels her eyes drooping without her consent. 

The door to Haseul’s office swings open at that very moment, and Hyunjin straightens up automatically, trying to seem like she wasn’t falling asleep only a few seconds ago. That wouldn’t help her case in not being fired at all. She needs to seem like a productive member of society, like someone who’s an asset to this branch and can’t afford to be fired, like a—

All rational thoughts fly out the window as soon as she sees who enters the room.

Haseul claps her hands as soon as Jeon Heejin sits in the open chair next to Hyunjin, completely oblivious to the tension in the room. “Alright, now that you’re both here, I have something to tell you.”

Hyunjin frowns, wondering what exactly Haseul needed from the both of them. Does she need to ask them some things for the annual report they send to corporate? Has one of their co-workers finally complained about the mini prank war that’s been going on? Did she want the two of them to work on a new project together? 

She blanches at the last possibility, thinking that there’s nothing worse than having to work on a project, much less working on a project with Jeon Heejin. 

“You guys are the Chosen Ones this year!” 

Hyunjin’s eyes widen in horror as soon as she processes the words, knowing the exact meaning behind them and wishing she didn’t. She takes it all back — she’d rather do a project. She’d rather do _a hundred_ projects instead of this.

“What?” she says at the same time Heejin asks, “Why?” They both turn to stare at each other with identical scowls.

“The hat has spoken,” Haseul says simply. “You two have to organize the office Christmas party.”

The office Christmas party is something that Haseul insisted they had to do every year on the last day of work before break — something about the holiday spirit and bringing people together? Hyunjin doesn’t know since she normally stops listening when Haseul begins one of her morale-boosting speeches.

The thing is, after the first office party turned out to be a disaster (and involving someone that Haseul _swears_ she didn’t know was a stripper), Haseul is no longer allowed to plan them. So every year, two lucky people would be chosen to organize everything by pulling names from the green fedora that Haseul adores _._ The reward for doing so is unclear. Jinsol got a twenty dollar gift card to Starbucks when she did it, and Jungeun mentioned a two hundred dollar bonus in the break room once.

She desperately hopes it’s the latter.

Hyunjin has had the fortune of never being one of the unlucky souls picked. Normally Haseul tells the Chosen Ones around the end of November, and seeing as they’re about a week and a half into December, she automatically assumed she was safe.

She now sees the mistake of her past-self. She should always assume the worst-case-scenario in order to prepare herself for the crushing disappointment of situations like these.

“I know it’s a little late,” Haseul says. “But I couldn’t find my fedora for the longest time, and obviously I can’t pick without the fedora.”

“Obviously,” Hyunjin echoes, staring outside longingly. They’re six floors up and she’s considering throwing herself out the window. Could she even make it through the glass? It looks pretty sturdy, but Hyunjin is stubborn when she wants to be.

“But I know you both will work hard to make this party the best one yet!” Haseul continues, blissfully unaware of Hyunjin’s plan. “And if I remember correctly, you both work well together.”

 _You have the memory of a goldfish,_ Hyunjin almost says — almost. 

Haseul goes on and on, and by this point, Hyunjin’s tuning her out. Planning a party for a holiday she thinks is severely overrated with someone she considers her mortal enemy? Who did she murder in her past life to deserve such a harsh sentence.

“...go all out with decorations and food...”

Maybe she’ll quit. She doesn’t need to eat _that_ badly, does she?

“...have creative liberty over many things...”

She can sell her collection of kpop albums or something. That should help cover rent for a month or two.

“...obviously a Secret Santa exchange...”

She only needs one kidney to survive. How much can she get for a kidney? She files that in her _Google later_ folder.

“...any questions?”

Hyunjin refocuses to find Haseul staring at her and Heejin. When neither of them speak up, Haseul grins. “Great! Feel free to use the conference room after work for planning if you want. It’s not like I lock up around here anyway.”

“That’s a little concerning,” Hyunjin mumbles, but Haseul either doesn’t seem to hear her, or she just chooses not to listen.

“Now shoo. I was just about to find out who she’s going to give the rose to before you came in.”

Hyunjin blinks once, long and slow, before turning on her heel and walking out the door. Not even a second later, she hears footsteps behind her. She braces herself.

“Hyunjin!” Heejin calls. Hyunjin doesn’t slow down, and the other woman has to half-jog to catch up. “Hyunjin!”

“I know, meet in the conference room right after work,” Hyunjin says with an eye roll. It’s been a while since they’ve worked together, but even she remembers Heejin’s annoying insistence on following a strict schedule for everything.

“That’s not what I wanted to talk about,” Heejin says, grabbing Hyunjin’s wrist so she’s forced to face Heejin’s irritation head on. “Where did you put my stapler.”

“What stapler?”

“Jiwoo said she saw you lurking around the sales department during lunch break yesterday. Where’d you put it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hyunjin smiles, sharp and sickly sweet. “Anyways, I’ve got lots of accounting to do. _So_ much accounting, I’m practically drowning in it, so I’ll see you later!” 

Hyunjin’s already halfway down her hallway by the time she finishes, and she doesn’t look back once. She wonders how long it’ll take before Heejin finds her stapler in the back of the fridge, encased in a large bowl of jello.

Maybe Heejin will think twice before switching out her strawberry jello for ketchup jello next time.

  
  


“Red and green decorations, obviously.”

“Cliche,” Hyunjin responds, not even bothering to look up from her phone. “Overused. Unoriginal. Bor—”

“It’s _Christmas._ It has to be red and green.

“Says who?”

Heejin closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, looking like she’d want nothing more than to launch herself over the table and strangle Hyunjin. “Let’s move onto food,” she says instead, knowing when to choose her battles. “What’s some food we should get?”

“Bread.”

Heejin frowns at the long pause that follows. “And…?”

“Preferably from that bakery downtown,” Hyunjin muses, getting hungry just thinking about it. “Definitely some croissants—“

“Are you even trying to put an effort into this?”

Hyunjin scowls and looks up. “I told you one food, didn’t I?”

“You told me bread,” Heejin says, her voice going dangerously soft. Her hands are bracing themselves against the table now, and the possibility of Hyunjin being strangled tonight goes up by at least fifteen percent. 

Well, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing that happened in the office this week. 

“Pizza,” Heejin says, more to herself than to Hyunjin. “Pizza’s easy. Everyone loves pizza, right? It’s perfect.”

Hyunjin doesn’t see what’s so wrong with her bread suggestion, but she’ll admit that pizza is a good choice for an office party. “Get some gluten-free,” she adds after a moment. When Heejin makes a noise of confusion, she shrugs. “Yerim’s allergic. She never really tells anyone though cuz she doesn’t wanna be a bother or whatever.”

“I didn’t know that.”

Hyunjin hums and nods, her attention reverting back to her phone when it buzzes for the fourth time in a row. It’s Jinsol, and she’s asking if Hyunjin can do the monthly expense report due tomorrow for her because she’s got a blind date tonight.

 _You owe me big,_ she types back, sighing inwardly. She has — or had, now — a date with Netflix tonight, but considering how many expense reports Jinsol’s taken care of for her, she supposes it’s only fair. Although Jinsol actually _likes_ doing the expense reports, so really, it’s a win-win situation when she does Hyunjin’s.

“I have to go,” she says, standing up from her chair. If she starts the report in an hour or so, she should be able to get in a couple episodes before sleeping.

Heejin just stares at her. “We’ve been working for fifteen minutes.”

“That’s fifteen minutes too long.” Hyunjin tugs on her coat, absentmindedly wondering what she’ll have for dinner tonight. She’s considering stopping at the bakery on her way home. All this talk about food has made her want some fresh bread, and she probably deserves a little treat for staying in the office for after-hours. 

“The party’s in _two weeks—”_

“See you tomorrow!” Hyunjin calls with faux cheer and walks as quickly as she can without breaking out into a run. Once she gets to the elevator, the tension in her shoulders that she wasn’t even aware of melts away, and she fixes her gaze on the changing floor numbers above the entrance.

She could barely get through fifteen minutes with Heejin. She prays to whatever god up there that she can last the next two weeks. It can’t take _that_ long to plan some office party, right?

  
  


“So how’s it been with Heejin so far?”

Hyunjin blankly stares ahead and takes a painfully slow sip of her coffee. Grimacing at the taste, she considers throwing it out, but shitty coffee from McDonalds is better than no coffee at all. She takes another sip and physically has to restrain her body from getting up and walking to the trash can across the room. _Really_ shitty coffee still has caffeine, she chants in her head.

It has been exactly one week and four days since the coffee machine broke. 

“Hyunjin?”

“Hm?” 

“How’s it been with Heejin?” Jinsol repeats, concern flashing across her features. 

“It’s fine.”

“Fine?”

“Fine.”

Jinsol scans Hyunjin’s face. “How are you?”

“...fine.”

“You don’t seem fine.”

“I’m _fine,”_ Hyunjin emphasizes. And really, disregarding the fact that she’s suffering from caffeine withdrawal, she’s fine. It’s a Friday, it’s almost closing time, and at this rate, she’ll finish all her work early. She’s gonna go home and cuddle with her cat and stuff her face with food and try to watch an entire 16-episode drama in a single weekend. Maybe even less than that if she binges hard enough.

The only thing standing in the way of her and her blissful weekend is another planning session with Heejin.

They’ve stayed after every day this week, but never long enough to get anything done because Hyunjin always finds a way to whittle the time down to twenty minutes at most. And no, she’s not _scared,_ she just has some sense of self-preservation. She’s lost count at how many times the murderous glint in Heejin’s eye has appeared while they’ve been together, and she’s not eager to see how much Heejin can handle before she finally _does_ strangle Hyunjin.

Besides, Hyunjin isn’t exactly eager to spend quality alone time with Heejin either. Especially not after Heejin messed with all the screws to her office chair today and caused it to fall apart when Hyunjin touched it. She’ll admit, that was a good one.

But they have less than two weeks now (thanks to Haseul’s misplacement of the fedora) and Hyunjin knows she can’t avoid this forever. Even though she wants nothing more than to run from this project until it becomes a distant memory in her brain, she has to prove she’s no slacker — _especially_ since Heejin’s involved.

The sharp click of heels permeates the air, and then, “Hey.”

Jinsol visibly perks up at the familiar sound. The heels come closer, and Sooyoung appears in their line of sight, tilting her head in her usual greeting. Hyunjin gives a two-fingered salute in response and Jinsol actually manages a normal smile and wave. It’s a significant improvement from last time.

“You know that report you submitted a couple days ago?” Sooyoung asks, turning her attention to Jinsol and taking a few steps forward.

Jinsol’s expression gradually grows more dazed the closer Sooyoung gets to her desk. Sooyoung is wearing a blazer, Hyunjin notes to herself. Jinsol is especially weak for blazers.

“...full of errors,” Sooyoung is saying. Jinsol doesn’t respond, and a few moments of silence pass before Sooyoung rolls her eyes. “Are you even listening to me?”

“Blazer,” Jinsol mumbles. She blinks twice after she says it, almost like she didn’t mean to say it aloud.

“I’m gonna file an HR complaint against you if you keep staring at me like that.” It’s obvious Sooyoung is joking from the amused smirk on her lips, but Jinsol pales anyway.

“No,” she whispers. “Not Yerim.”

Jinsol sounds deathly afraid, and it’s not because Choi Yerim is scary. No, she’s the sweetest person to ever grace their building. It’s because Yerim is an angel who has looked up to Jinsol ever since she got assigned to their branch, and getting a complaint for Jinsol potentially undressing Sooyoung with her eyes would completely ruin Jinsol’s image. 

Sooyoung snaps her fingers in front of Jinsol. “Then listen to me.”

“I’m listening!”

“Why was your report so bad?”

“My report?” Jinsol says in confusion. “But my reports are always perfect.”

Sooyoung arches an eyebrow. “Well this one wasn’t.”

“My report,” Jinsol repeats. “Report…” Then she shoots Hyunjin a dirty look for some reason. Right, _Hyunjin_ did the report that Sooyoung’s talking about. The one with multiple errors apparently.

 _Sorry,_ she mouths to Jinsol. She’s really not that sorry. Watching that drama was totally worth all the mistakes, and she’s not even the one getting yelled at for it. Win-win.

“I knew it!” Sooyoung says, catching the entire exchange. She tilts her head at Jinsol. “Why’d Hyunjin do your report this time? Did you pick up a stray cat from the side of the road again?”

“That was only because Hyunjin threatened to throw herself out of the moving car if I didn’t stop.”

“So you wouldn’t save a stray cat?”

“That’s not what I said!”

“Did your fish die?”

“No!” Jinsol sounds horrified at the mere idea of her beloved blue betta passing away.

“Needed to pretend to be someone’s girlfriend at a bar—”

“Can you let that go?” Jinsol interrupts through gritted teeth, her cheeks turning pink. “That was _one_ time! I’m sorry, you caught me off-guard and I panicked.”

Sooyoung throws her head back and laughs. “I’m never gonna let that go. But seriously, why’d you get Hyunjin to do your report? You love doing these types of things.”

Hyunjin can physically _see_ the moment Jinsol cracks. She watches with a strange sense of horror and fascination, almost like watching a car crash right before it actually occurs. She just can’t look away from the tragedy waiting to happen, even if she wanted to.

“It was a blind date,” Jinsol — painfully honest Jinsol — blurts out.

The atmosphere drops in a matter of seconds, and Hyunjin winces at the brief flash of disappointment on Sooyoung’s face when she registers what Jinsol says.

“Right, well go over the report and turn it in again whenever you have time,” Sooyoung says, her previously playful demeanor nowhere to be found. “I should get going. I’m pretty sure Jiwoo was asking for me, so...”

Jinsol nods silently, and that was that.

Hyunjin waits until Sooyoung is out of the room before turning to Jinsol and throwing an eraser at her. “You’re an idiot.”

“Seconded,” Jungeun says without looking up from her computer. “You and Sooyoung need to sort your shit out. I’m tired of dealing with the sexual tension this early in the morning.”

Jinsol just lets her head fall to her desk with a resounding _thump_.

  
  


When a piercing shriek echoes throughout the building on Monday morning, Hyunjin doesn’t question it, just keeps her head nestled between her arms and closes her eyes. She has about fifteen more minutes until Sooyoung makes her daily round in the building to silently guilt employees into actually working and she plans on taking full advantage of every second she has. 

The shriek sounds again and a voice screams, “What on Earth is this absolute _atrocity!”_

This makes Hyunjin crack one eye open in mild concern because the voice sounds distinctly like Haseul, and while Haseul does tend to scream a lot, she never sounds this distraught while doing it. She wonders which idiot was responsible. Maybe Yeojin? Their new intern did love to antagonize Haseul at any given moment.

“JEON HEEJIN!”

Hyunjin bites back a smirk at the pterodactyl roar Haseul lets out. It wasn’t often that Heejin got scolded for anything. 

“KIM HYUNJIN!” comes Haseul’s next shout, and Hyunjin’s smirk is wiped clean off her face.

Jinsol makes eye-contact with her across the room and raises her eyebrows. “Ooooh, Hyunjin’s in trouble,” she says like she’s a child in elementary school.

“Fuck off,” Hyunjin says in response as she leaves her cubicle, like a mature adult normally would.

“What is this?” Haseul asks once Hyunjin finds them. Heejin’s already beside Haseul, arms crossed and an exasperated expression marring her features.

Hyunjin’s eyes follow the direction of Haseul’s finger, and a beat passes as she stares at the item that’s apparently causing Haseul all this distress. “It’s a Christmas tree?”

“That’s not a Christmas tree,” Haseul says, her nostrils flaring indignantly. 

“Why?” Hyunjin eyes the tree suspiciously. There are ornaments and ribbons and lights, there’s even a little angel at the top — you can’t do much better than that. What could Haseul possibly find wrong with it?

“It’s _fake.”_

“And?” 

“This is unacceptable,” Haseul mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose and fixing them both with a stern glare. “You have to get a real tree, not whatever _this_ is.”

“But we’d have to go into the next town over,” Heejin says, her brows furrowing. “That’s at least two hours away.”

Haseul just nods.

Right at that very moment, Hyunjin feels her soul leave her body. She stares at the angel perched on top of the fake Christmas tree and wonders what it’s like to not have to deal with bosses with a scary amount of Christmas cheer or plan parties with coworkers that she despises. It sounds like a nice, simple life, and Hyunjin is almost jealous of the fat baby mocking her with its angelic smile.

Who is she kidding? She’s definitely jealous.

Haseul lowers her voice like she’s letting them in on an important secret. “I like them on the taller side. Then the angel can stare down everyone.” Then she pats them on the shoulders before turning on her heel and disappearing in her office. 

“Brilliant idea,” Hyunjin grumbles, a tiny scowl etching its way onto her face. “Let’s get a fake tree for the most _extra_ person we know…”

“I didn’t hear _you_ complaining when we went to go get it.”

“I was trusting _your_ judgement—”

“That’s a first—”

Someone clears their throat behind them, and they turn around to see Sooyoung stepping off the elevator, a single, perfect eyebrow arched and arms crossed in her usual form of judgement. “Heejin, Hyunjin.”

The _“why are you two arguing like children right in front of the elevator where I have to witness it”_ goes unsaid.

“Sooyoung,” they mumble in unison, their heads bowed.

Sooyoung catches sight of the tree behind them and frowns. “Haseul let you get a fake tree? I did that my first year and she almost beat me with it.”

“Not exactly,” Heejin says, rubbing the back of her neck. “We, uh…”

“We have to drive over two hours to get a real one,” Hyunjin says helpfully. Laughter bubbles up in her chest for an inexplicable reason, and she wonders if she’s hit her breaking point. 

“Oh, well good luck with that.” A pause, and Sooyoung awkwardly glances at Hyunjin before focusing on Heejin. “Can I talk to you?”

Hyunjin’s left staring at the tree alone, and she knows she’ll need a lot more than luck now.

  
  


Wednesday morning marks exactly a week before the party. It’s also the day that Hyunjin’s dragged from her cubicle to be an unwilling participant in one of Heejin’s stupid ideas.

“It’s not a stupid idea,” Heejin says as she keeps a firm grip on Hyunjin’s wrist. “We literally _have_ to do it.”

“I don’t understand why you need me though,” Hyunjin whines. She considers digging her heels into the ground, but then Heejin will probably use it as an excuse to mercilessly drag her across the carpet and give her rug burn. There’s no way in hell Hyunjin is letting that happen. She’d never live through the humiliation.

“If I have to suffer, you do too.”

“You aren’t suffering! Your job is literally talking to people! This should be a breeze.”

Heejin shushes her as they near their first victim: Haseul.

“Pick a name,” Heejin orders, holding out the baseball cap full of paper slips.

Haseul looks at the pieces of paper in the hat for a full minute, and Hyunjin’s _this_ close to strangling her when Haseul finally reaches out and picks one. As soon as she unfolds it, the blood drains from her face in a matter of seconds. She holds out the paper again. “I’m just gonna put this back—”

Heejin jerks the cap away before she can. “No take-backs.”

“The hat has spoken,” Hyunjin adds. She thinks it’s quite poetic that she has the opportunity to throw those words back in Haseul’s face.

Haseul looks anguished. “Please, I’ll do anything. Do you want more vacation time? An extra Christmas bonus? The opportunity to use my private jet?”

“You have a private jet?” Hyunjin asks while Heejin firmly says, “No.”

Hyunjin throws a sideways glance at her. “Maybe we should hear her out…”

Heejin plucks the paper from Haseul’s hand and narrows her eyes as she reads the name that’s gotten Haseul all worked up. “Vivi.” A long silence follows, then she rolls her eyes. “Are you kidding me?”

“She’s hard to shop for!” 

“She’s your _wife!”_

“That’s even worse! If I don’t get the perfect gift then I’ll be sleeping on the couch!”

“I—”

“Have fun with your gift hunting,” Hyunjin interrupts, grabbing the other woman and tugging her out the door before she can scold Haseul further. Heejin is still muttering to herself while they make their way to the sales department, and Hyunjin turns away to hide her slight smirk. 

The process gets much easier after Haseul. Jiwoo made a big deal about hiding her name (“that’s the point of a Secret Santa,” she had said passionately), Chaewon picked a name without sparing a single glance at them, and Yeojin just giggled uncontrollably when she read the name she got.

“She got Hyejoo,” she whispers to Heejin after they walk away from their fourth victim — their resident Human Resources representative, Choi Yerim.

“What?”

“For the Secret Santa thing.”

“How do you know? Did you see the name on it?”

“No, she just had her Hyejoo smile on.” Hyunjin scans the room to make sure they haven’t missed anyone. “We should probably hit up accounting now.” 

“What’s a Hyejoo smile?” Heejin asks as soon as they’re back in the hallway.

“You know, the one Yerim has on whenever Hyejoo’s mentioned? The soft one with the really squinty eyes?”

There’s a long moment of silence, then realization dawns on Heejin’s features. “She _does_ have a Hyejoo smile. I can’t believe you noticed that.”

“I’m just observant.”

Heejin laughs.

Hyunjin simply blinks at her.

“Oh, you’re serious,” Heejin says, pursing her lips.

Hyunjin bristles at the unspoken challenge and holds up her hand, counting off fingers. “Jiwoo got Chaewon; she glanced in her direction right after reading the name. Chaewon probably got Sooyoung; she scoffed in her signature, ‘I’m better than you’ way she always does when Sooyoung is around. Yeojin obviously got Haseul; she giggled because it’s a perfect opportunity to get a gag gift, and Yerim got Hyejoo — I already told you why.”

Heejin crosses her arms. “You could be making all this up right now.”

“I’m not! Wait till the party; you’ll see.”

That’s pretty much how the rest of the time goes as they go around, with Hyunjin murmuring guesses in Heejin’s ear and Heejin only rolling her eyes as a response. Some people are harder to read than others, but she’s gotten good at this after a couple of years staring at people in the office instead of working. 

Heejin peers into the cap. “Two names left. Guess it’s just you and me.”

“We missed Sooyoung,” Hyunjin says, quick to point out the mistake. “You screwed up.”

“Did not,” Heejin says, a defensive edge taking on her voice despite allegedly not screwing up. “Sooyoung already picked. I got to her before I decided to make you suffer with me.”

“Oh, I’ll do the honors then.” Hyunjin grabs a paper before Heejin can object because yes, the two of them are petty enough to be competitive on who goes first in picking their Secret Santa name. _Choi Yerim,_ she reads, biting back a grin. This is an easy one. She already had some ideas forming in her mind.

Heejin takes the final slip of paper and places the now-empty cap on her head. Hyunjin watches with sharp eyes as Heejin unfolds the paper, wondering if she can figure out who Heejin got. It’s all in the little gestures that help her narrow it down: the corners of their mouth quirking upwards, the crinkles forming in the forehead, the glance in one direction or the other. 

She’s not perfect at guessing, far from it, but she can always narrow it down to a few people and take it from there. People normally think that she’s got her head in the clouds, always in her own little world all the time, but that’s not true. She pays attention, and she can remember a lot more than people give her credit for.

In a way, this is a little game to see how well she knows her coworkers. And Hyunjin’s nothing if not competitive.

For Heejin however, she doesn’t know what to think. There’s a downwards slant to her eyebrows and slight scoff, but a tug upwards at the corners of her mouth — a strange combination.

“Well?” Heejin says after a few seconds, looking expectant.

“Well what?”

“Are you gonna guess? You’ve been doing it all morning.”

Hyunjin pauses at the entrance of the sales department and looks at her nails, hoping to seem nonchalant. “You already know who you got. There’d be no point.”

It doesn’t work. Heejin’s expression morphs into one of victory instantly. “So you don’t know.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You’re too proud to admit it.”

Hyunjin pointedly opens the door as a response and doesn’t bother answering. 

“You know I’m right,” Heejin sing-songs as she practically skips through the door. She turns to fully face Hyunjin, a grin on her face. “Just admit it.”

“I’ll see you after work,” Hyunjin deadpans and shuts the door. She shakes her head when she hears laughter on the other side of the door, a tiny smile on her face.

  
  


Hyunjin shoves her hands deep in her pockets and glares at random a spot on the sidewalk, wanting nothing more than to be curled up in her bed under the warm blanket, not standing outside in twenty degree weather and waiting for Heejin — who is _late_ — to come pick her up. She shouldn’t even be awake right now. 

When Heejin’s car finally pulls up, Hyunjin doesn’t waste any time. “You better have a damn good excuse for being ten minutes late and making me stand—”

A drink is shoved in front of her face and her mouth snaps shut. 

“The line at the shop was longer than normal,” Heejin says, pushing her glasses further up her nose. “Sorry. I figured your order is still the same?

Hyunjin barely registers her words, too busy inhaling in the scent of coffee. She cradles the cup between her hands and takes a sip. The taste explodes on her tongue, and she realizes that it’s a perfect replica of her usual order. “Holy shit, marry me,” she mumbles into her cup, taking another sip.

It hits her a second later that she asked Heejin, her _sworn enemy,_ to marry her.

Heejin just shakes her head, a low chuckle escaping her lips. “You’re legitimately addicted to caffeine. It’s kinda worrying.”

“Worry about yourself,” Hyunjin shoots back. “I _need_ this, especially this early in the morning.”

“It’s eleven in the morning.”

“Too early to be alive.”

“And too early to listen to you complain,” Heejin says, cranking up the music and drowning out Hyunjin’s complaints. 

When the song registers in Hyunjin’s mind, a scowl forms on her face. “No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I am not spending the next two and a half hours listening to _this,”_ Hyunjin says, reaching towards the radio. 

Heejin’s able to react quicker, slapping the hand away before she can change the station. “Driver chooses the music. Plus, I bought you coffee. You owe me.”

“But why this?”

The smooth voice of Michael Bublé croons through the car speakers and Heejin sighs. “Because it’s Christmas time. You listen to Christmas music during Christmas time.”

Hyunjin rolls her eyes and slouches down in the leather seat. “Overplayed, overrated, repetitive, did I mention overplayed—”

“God, you’re the worst. You’re just like the Grinch.”

“Prettier though, right?”

Heejin waits till the car comes to a stop at a red light before looking at Hyunjin, a single brow raised. “You really want me to compare you to a hairy green creature with a squished face?”

Hyunjin nods slowly.

“That’s easy,” Heejin says, turning her attention back to the road. “The Grinch is prettier, hands down.”

“Hey!”

  
  


“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Hyunjin grumbles as she nears the lodge of the Christmas tree farm, squinting at the sign hanging right outside the wooden barn doors. 

_Don’t forget to pick up a saw!_ it reads in annoyingly oversized Comic Sans. And right below it were about a dozen saws — a dozen _hand_ saws. 

“I’m out,” she says, turning around with the full intent of marching back to the car.

Heejin’s hand shoots out to grab a hold of Hyunjin’s sleeve before she can take a single step. “You’re not leaving me here alone,” she hisses, keeping a firm grip on Hyunjin. 

Hyunjin groans obnoxiously as they make their way towards the numerous rows of trees. It seems like Heejin dragging her along is becoming a common occurrence. They walk through the row of trees, not really knowing where to start.

“Do you remember how big the tree was last year?” Heejin asks, pausing at a tree that was bigger than both of them combined.

“Uh, no.” Hyunjin glances between Heejin and the tree, her eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion. If Heejin wants that one, she’s definitely on her own. 

“Useless.”

Hyunjin takes it in full stride. “Gracing you with my presence is enough, no?”

“Maybe if you saved me from suffering through your presence…”

“What happened to _’you’re not leaving me here alone’—”_

“Because I can’t cut down a tree by myself!” Heejin crosses her arms, looking extra tiny wrapped with the puffy coat, oversized hat, and scarf wrapped around her neck. “You’re annoying, you know that? This is exactly why I chose the Grinch.” 

Hyunjin shoots her a glare, definitely not needing the reminder that Heejin chose the Grinch over her. “Let’s just find a tree and get out of here. I don’t have all day.”

“Maybe if you had woken up before eleven, we would have more time.”

“It can’t take that long to cut down a tree.”

“How would you know? Have you ever cut down a tree?”

“Have _you?”_

Heejin has no response. “Let’s just find a tree and get out of here,” she says after a long moment, echoing Hyunjin’s earlier sentiments.

“So you’re agreeing with me?” Hyunjin says, a smug smile appearing on her face. It’s not often that Heejin agrees with her, so she appreciates the times it does happen.

“The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I can get away from you.”

Hyunjin scoffs. _Ditto._ She points at a tree only a few feet ahead of where they stood. “What about this one?” 

Heejin stares at it, her eyebrows knitting together. “Sure, if you want Haseul to beat us with it.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s tiny.”

“Charlie Brown had a tiny tree and he seemed happy!” At least, she thinks it was Charlie Brown. She’s never really been into Christmas movies, especially not the classics.

“No.”

“Fine. What about that one? That one looks kinda nice?”

Heejin follows her finger and makes a face. “Are we looking at the same tree? That one's ugly as hell.”

“Don’t say that. You’re gonna hurt it’s feelings.”

“Trees don’t have feelings.”

“Did a tree tell you that? I didn’t think so.”

“Hyunjin,” Heejin says, a warning creeping into her voice. She lifts the saw to point it directly at Hyunjin, and while Hyunjin likes annoying Heejin almost as much as she likes caffeine, she didn’t want her cause of death to be by Heejin and hand saw. That would be too embarrassing for her.

Twenty excruciatingly long minutes later of their back and forth, Hyunjin’s seriously considering cutting down the Charlie Brown tree herself when she hears Heejin gasp beside her. Hyunjin turns and catches sight of what Heejin’s staring at.

“That one,” Heejin murmurs, taking a step forward as if in a trance, and for once in her life, Hyunjin finds herself agreeing. The tree is perfect — the perfect height, the perfect shape, the perfect color, everything. In short, it’s the answer to their prayers. She steals the saw away from Heejin and sprints forward, desperate to finish the job.

Unfortunately, it was never that easy. 

“Fuck!” Hyunjin hisses, recoiling for the seventh time in five minutes. She swears this fucking tree is out to get her. ”It just stabbed my eye again!” 

“If you’d hurry up and just cut through it…”

“It’s harder than it looks!”

“Give it to me then!”

She relents, taking a step back and crossing her arms while Heejin begins to saw at the base. She goes for about a minute before admitting defeat, and Hyunjin does nothing to hide the smug smirk on her face.

“Shut up,” Heejin mutters, shoving the saw back into Hyunjin’s hand. 

“I didn’t say anything.”

“I know you."

Hyunjin ignores her and kneels back in the dirt to observe Heejin’s handiwork. She’d never admit it, but Heejin managed to get through a good chunk of the trunk in her minute-long bout, so there was only a little remaining to saw through. Hyunjin renews her efforts and ignores the twinge of pain in her back for being bent in such a strange position for a prolonged amount of time. _Back and forth. Back and forth._

“Timber!” she yells once she gets through the last of it before curling up in the tornado safety position. The tree crashes into the ground, quickly followed by a string of curses from Heejin, then complete silence.

Hyunjin cracks open an eye to find Heejin tangled in the branches of the newly-fallen tree, and she spends a good thirty seconds laughing her ass off before helping the other woman up.

  
  


“You ladies better get going soon,” the old man at the register says when the two of them finally make it back to the cabin. “A storm’s closing in on us soon.”

“Storm?” Hyunjin repeats. She’s not sure why, but a feeling of dread begins to pool in the bottom of her gut.

He nods. “They’re talking about closing the roads. It’s supposed to come in around six.”

Hyunjin glances at the clock on the wall. _3:42._ She gives it around ten minutes before they’re done tying the tree up, and then another ten to attach it to the roof of Heejin’s car. Add three or so hours to get back to their town with traffic, and they’re set to get home around eight in the evening.

The dread grows stronger.

“I think we’ll be fine,” says Heejin, offering him a sweet smile.

Hyunjin just stares ahead unblinkingly. She has a bad feeling about this.

  
  


“What the fuck,” Heejin curses, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. “Why the fuck is it snowing so fucking much?”

Three fucks in a row, Hyunjin notes to herself. Heejin must be feeling pretty panicked. Understandable considering it looks like someone had placed a white sheet over the car. It’s been snowing for thirty minutes, but it feels like much longer. Hyunjin is pretty sure Heejin’s going forty on the _highway_ and she isn’t even complaining about it — a testament to how much snow there is already.

“Pull over on the next exit,” she says finally.

“What?”

“Heejin, you can barely see out the windshield, and I’m too young to die.”

Heejin looks like she might try and argue, but a particularly thick flurry of snow has her merging into the right lane and pulling off the highway. They’re still an hour away from home. Nothing is ever easy, especially with Jeon Heejin.

“Let’s find a hotel,” Hyunjin suggests. At Heejin’s quizzical expression, she scowls. “Unless you have a better idea? This storm is gonna last all night.”

Heejin sighs in defeat when she realizes Hyunjin is right. “Hotel it is.”

They manage to locate one through the snow and park without hitting another car or a person, which is a miracle if you ask Hyunjin. She’s seen firsthand Heejin’s driving ability and it is _not_ pretty. As soon as the car pulls to a stop, they blindly sprint and pray they don’t trip over anything covered by the thick layer of snow. They can’t afford a trip to the hospital right now.

“Why the hell did you park so far away?”

“I'm sorry I can’t see the goddamn parking lot, Hyunjin!”

Once they get inside, the receptionist stares at them with wide eyes. She and Heejin must be quite a sight — twigs in their hair, scratches sustained from the fight with the tree, and heaving like they just ran a marathon. Heejin doubles over immediately, and Hyunjin eyes her warily from the corner of her eye. She should really work on her stamina.

“Do you have any rooms open?” Hyunjin has to ask because Heejin’s too busy gasping for breath.

“Of course. Would you like one or two?”

“Uh, one?” 

The lady nods, tapping away on her keyboard. “One bed or two.”

It takes a second for the question to register, and when it does, Hyunjin blurts out, “Two!” Her voice echoes throughout the empty lobby, and she winces at the volume. “Two please.”

More tapping, then two room cards are presented. “Have a nice stay.”

Hyunjin stares at the offered items. It finally hits her that she’ll be sharing a hotel room with Heejin and that, by tomorrow, she’ll have spent over 24 hours with her. She then shoots the most charming smile she has at the receptionist. “Do you sell alcohol here?”

  
  


The romantic music swells as the woman declares her love for the man, explaining how he and his five-year-old boy helped her recognize the true meaning of Christmas — a time of family and laughter as opposed to acting like a workaholic for the company that’s withheld her promotion for years now. They finally kiss, the snow begins to fall, the Christmas lights shine brightly, blah blah blah.

“This is so cliche,” Hyunjin groans, covering her eyes with her hand. “Look at them. It’s probably cold as fuck. I bet they can’t feel anything.”

“Drink!” Heejin says. “And shut up, it’s cute.”

“This is stupid.” Hyunjin takes another sip from her glass and tries not to grimace at the taste. “I’m not making you drink every time you gush about Christmas.” Although, she probably doesn’t need to, judging from Heejin’s red cheeks and slurred speech.

“I don’t _gush_ about Christmas.”

“You do.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“...do not.”

Hyunjin purses her lips. “You’re such a child.”

“Says you.”

The credits roll down the screen, and Hyunjin reaches over to steal the remote. “I can’t believe I just sat through an hour and a half of this shitty—“ The rest is cut off when something smacks her square in the face. Hyunjin lets out an indignant squawk and rips the pillow away from her face.

Heejin stares back unblinkingly.

There’s a moment of tense silence, then Hyunjin lunges at Heejin with a pillow she acquired from her own bed. She lands a perfectly aimed strike to Heejin’s head, and it’s a free-for-all from there. It’s a mess of muffled curses and shrieks, and they really shouldn’t be doing this half-drunk because Heejin hits her head against the wooden headboard multiple times, and Hyunjin may or may not have fallen off the bed and earned herself a few nasty bruises on the way down. 

But by the end of their impromptu battle, Hyunjin can barely breathe and her sides and cheeks ache from laughing too much. She collapses on the bed with Heejin right next to her, their shoulders touching. They’re both still giggling, and the situation is eerily reminiscent of when they were assigned to the biggest conference of the year.

The thought sobers up Hyunjin a bit and she clears her throat. “We should probably get to bed. Long day tomorrow, right?” She doesn’t wait for Heejin to respond before sitting up and making her way to her own bed. 

“Hey!” Heejin barks, pointing a finger right at Hyunjin’s face and making her go slightly cross-eyed. “Why don’t you like me?” 

Hyunjin rolls her eyes at the grade-school question and bats the hand away. “I don’t not like you.”

“So you don’t like me!” 

“No, I don’t _not_ like you—“

“You do _not_ like me?”

“That’s the opposite of what I said!” Hyunjin sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. It’s becoming glaringly obvious that Heejin can’t hold her alcohol in the slightest.

“You always avoid me. And you’re so irritating whenever we’re together.”

Hyunjin looks at her, eyes wide in disbelief. “Me?”

“Yes!”

“You’re the one who threw away my lunch!”

“I thought it was an empty bag! And you’re the one who _stole_ my lunch from the break room fridge!”

“It was sitting there for two days! I assumed it was open for the taking by then!”

“You hid my office supplies around the building and made me go on some dumb Easter egg hunt!”

“After you forwarded unsolicited callers to my work phone!”

“You took my stapler and _still_ haven’t given it back!”

“You got me kicked off the presentation team!”

Heejin freezes, and once Hyunjin realizes what just slipped out, she freezes too. Her head feels fuzzy. She shouldn’t have drank so much tonight.

“I—what?”

“Nothing. Forget it.” Hyunjin hurriedly turns off the lamp on her side of the room and turns over in her bed, facing the wall away from Heejin. Her heart is pounding for some reason, thundering in her ears. She blames it on the alcohol.

Heejin doesn’t give up that easily. “You’re talking about that one project we did together, the one for the conference last year.” It’s not a question.

The familiar resentment rears its head, and Hyunjin scoffs softly. “What else?”

“You think _I_ got you kicked off?”

“Did you not?”

“Of course not. We worked together on that project for weeks. You deserved to attend that conference just as much as I did.” There’s a long pause, and then Hyunjin barely catches Heejin’s murmur, “Probably even more than me.”

Pieces of old conversations form in Hyunjin’s mind without her permission.

_(“I can’t do this. Someone else should take my place.”_

_“Don’t say that! You’ve worked your ass off these past few weeks. You deserve to attend this conference.”)_

“I begged Haseul to let you stay, but she said the higher-ups insisted on sending one male because it would — and I quote — help the project connect with the men more successfully. She couldn’t do anything about it.”

So Hyunjin got replaced by some incompetent man because other men wouldn’t listen to two women. She shouldn’t be that surprised at this point. “Why didn’t you tell me?” 

Heejin sighs and shrugs. A long moment passes as they both gather their thoughts. “I thought you knew. I thought you were giving me the cold shoulder because I was chosen instead of you, and after a while, I just stopped trying.”

Guilt wells up within Hyunjin as she remembers the ignored texts and calls, the way she deliberately avoided Heejin during break time for weeks, the many conversations full of jabs towards each other, the countless pranks and other things.

“I messed up that day, you know,” Heejin muses, sounding more like she’s talking to herself than to Hyunjin. “My mind completely blanked at one point and your replacement was no help whatsoever.”

_(“You’re gonna do great, okay? I know you will.”_

_“What if I don’t?”_

_“You will.”)_

“What happened?” Hyunjin asks. She doesn’t mention that she had witnessed that exact mistake at the conference, that she wanted to run up to Heejin and help her because that was the section Hyunjin prepared and rehearsed, not Heejin. As far as Heejin knew, Hyunjin didn't go to the conference.

“I remembered what you told me. It helped.”

_(“What would I do without you?”_

_“Probably die. Luckily for you, I’m not going anywhere.”)_

Hyunjin doesn’t respond, and it doesn’t take long for the light on Heejin’s side of the room to shut off. The sudden darkness is stifling, and she stares up at the ceiling, unable to fall asleep. A hundred questions run through her mind, but she didn’t voice any of them. 

“Hyunjin?”

Hyunjin startles at the unexpected voice. She thought Heejin had fallen asleep already. “Yeah?”

“Good night.”

To her dismay, Heejin begins snoring only a few seconds later. She shakes her head, a tiny smile on her face. A lightweight indeed.

“Good night, Heejin,” she says to no one, then closes her eyes. 

_(“Hyun?”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“Thank you.”)_

  
  


Heejin wakes up with a pathetic groan and a single wish: “I want to die.”

Hyunjin watches her half-heartedly swing her arm in the direction of the curtains, an amused smirk playing with her lips. “You really can’t hold your alcohol.”

“It’s too early for you to mock me.”

“It’s never too early for that,” Hyunjin says, placing the cup of water and the pills on the dresser. “Take some of these. It’ll help.”

Heejin cracks one eye open, and Hyunjin bites back her laughter at her disgruntled expression. “Are you trying to poison me?”

“Why don’t you find out?” At Heejin’s glare, Hyunjin rolls her eyes. “It’s just Advil. It’ll help with the headache.”

That’s apparently all the convincing Heejin needs because in the span of the next second, she pops the pills in her mouth and chugs down the entire glass of water. As soon as she finishes, she disappears back under the comforter.

Hyunjin allows her one precious minute of peace before poking the lump on the bed with her foot. “We gotta get going. Check out is at eleven and the roads are clear now.”

“What time is it?”

“10:50.”

Another pathetic groan sounds from under the comforter. “Leave me here to die.”

“And set up this Christmas tree alone? No, you’re going to suffer with me, _then_ you can die.”

Heejin doesn’t move a single muscle.

“I’ll buy you doughnuts.”

There’s some shifting before Heejin’s eyes peek out and fixate on Hyunjin’s eyes. A beat passes as they stare at each other, then Heejin nods. “Deal.”

Bribery always works. 

It doesn’t take long for them to clear out of the hotel room, and once they get outside, Heejin actually hisses and cowers from the sun like that sparkly vampire from the movie Jinsol had forced Hyunjin to watch years ago. She then throws her arm over her face and makes a string of unintelligible noises that, once again, ends with her wishing for death.

“There are these things called sunglasses, you know,” Hyunjin says dryly, plucking the keys from Heejin’s grip.

Heejin squints at her. “What—“

“You can barely open your eyes, and I’m still too young to die. There’s no way in hell I’m letting you drive me back.”

“But—“

_“Heejin.”_

Finally, Heejin puts her hands up in surrender and climbs into the passenger’s seat. “Okay, okay, I’m going.”

They start driving, and it takes a full two minutes for Hyunjin to register what the radio is playing. Once she does, she shoots Heejin a dirty look. “What happened to driver picks the music?”

Heejin looks at her innocently as _Jingle Bell Rock_ plays in the background. “You didn’t pick this?”

Hyunjin raises one eyebrow, unimpressed.

“C’mon, it’s the one month we can listen to Christmas music without being judged,” Heejin whines, and she has the audacity to actually _pout_ at Hyunjin. And the worst thing? Hyunjin actually finds it endearing.

She groans and pointedly does not look at Heejin. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” she mutters, but she makes no move to change the station. “I hope you know that I’m judging you regardless of what month it is.”

She pretends not to see the blinding grin Heejin sends her way.

  
  


“Merry Christmas!” Haseul crows, popping the bottle of champagne open while everyone cheers and raises their cups. Hyunjin’s just impressed that Haseul is able to balance on the table in her heels _while_ tipsy.

Heejin catches her eye from across the room and quirks her eyebrows, and Hyunjin raises her own cup with a small smirk. She has to say, they did well. Red and green lights string across the ceiling and pink and yellow (upon Hyunjin’s insistence) streamers hang from the walls. Balloons of varying colors litter the floor, and there’s a medium-sized inflatable Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer standing guard next to the tree — the beautiful, perfect tree that took literal hours to drag up the building and primp and decorate.

Haseul better appreciate that damn tree.

“I’m impressed,” Jinsol says, looking around the room and taking in the details. “This place doesn’t look...bad.”

“Like you do?” Hyunjin supplies.

Jinsol smacks her arm in response. “You know what I mean. I’m surprised you and Heejin actually put this together. Last time I checked, you were considering supergluing all her supplies to her desk so you could watch her struggle to pick things up.”

“Oh, that’s a good one. Thanks for reminding me.”

 _“Hyunjin.”_

It’s the way Jinsol says it, all smug and knowing, that has Hyunjin shifting on her feet. Jinsol looks like she wants to say more, but before she can, someone yells out for Secret Santa, and then they’re all quickly being ushered in by the tree with the presents. It’s probably a blessing in disguise. Hyunjin won’t question it.

Here’s the thing, Secret Santa for their office isn’t a conventional Secret Santa. They don’t start off with one person opening their present and going down a line because that was _too boring_ and they consist of twelve idiots who can’t fucking wait for their turn because they’re either: a) too drunk, or b) too excited.

That’s how Hyunjin views it, at least. 

So, like the chaotic group they are, all twelve of them open their presents at once and then attempt to find their Secret Santa — something that consists of screaming questions, tripping over one another, and clumsy group hugs. 

This year is no different. Vivi and Jungeun are passing out gifts to everyone like the responsible duo they are. Although Jungeun has given Hyunjin three gifts already and none of them were actually meant for her, so Jungeun is so far gone by this point.

“YES!” Yeojin shouts, catching Hyunjin’s attention. She tosses the paper behind her and nails Haseul in the face, but she pays her no mind as she holds up the gift — a pair of frog slippers and a nail art set. “Who was it? Jiwoo? Vivi?” She bounces from person to person, reminding Hyunjin of one of those pinball machines. She comes to a standstill at Hyejoo.

“I guess she took all the _I hate you’s_ to heart,” Jinsol says, watching as Yeojin squeezes tighter until Hyejoo actually starts to wheeze. “She didn’t know Hye is actually a big softie.”

“She’s still new here,” Hyunjin reasons. “It took more than two months for Hyejoo to even say hi to me.”

“It’s better than being clowned on your very first day by her like I was.”

“What did you expect after showing up in that blouse?”

“Hey! I actually liked that blouse.”

“Only you liked it, Sol,” says Hyunjin, patting her friend on the shoulder consolingly. “For everyone else’s sake, I threw it out.”

“You what?!”

A deafening screech interrupts their conversation (another blessing in disguise for Hyunjin), and they both turn to see Hyejoo holding up her own gift with her signature gummy smile. “Yerim!” she says, and it’s endearing the way she cradles the brand new purple headset in her arms like a newborn child. 

“How do you know it’s from me?” Yerim asks, but she gives it away with her own grin anyway.

“Purple, duh.” Hyejoo shrugs like it’s obvious and bumps her shoulder against Yerim’s. Chaewon leans over to peer at the headset from Hyejoo’s other side, giving Yerim a thumbs-up once she finishes scanning the details.

Yerim figures out Hyunjin’s her Secret Santa right away when she opens her present to find two small stuffed toys, one cat and one bat. She gives Hyunjin the biggest hug and a quick peck on the cheek, something that makes Hyunjin smile until her cheeks hurt.

Hyunjin has yet to receive her gift. It looks like Jungeun’s finally given up on passing out presents, and Vivi is too busy trying to calm down Haseul after she opened a box to find a live pigeon in a cage, courtesy of one Im Yeojin.

“What the…'' Jinsol says, drawing Hyunjin’s attention away from Haseul’s near-fainting.

Hyunjin looks over to see her turning over her unwrapped gift in her hands. “Is that a scrapbook?” she asks, taking in the stapled printer paper and messy colors and tiny stickers. 

Jinsol turns it over to the cover and stares at the title. “It’s a coupon book.”

A homemade coupon book — something that _children_ give their parents as gifts, not fully grown adults who have their own salary to buy a gift, not make it. Who the hell would give someone a coupon book for a Secret Santa gift? Hell, a mug would probably be better than this, and a mug is about as basic as you can get for an office gift exchange. 

“I bet the first coupon is a free pass from doing an expense report or something equally as lame,” says Hyunjin, nudging Jinsol in an attempt to distract her from the (lame) gift.

Jinsol just frowns and flips it open. Hyunjin wants to see what the coupons are, but the sound of an off-tune accordion has her staring at Jiwoo instead. Jiwoo plays her new accordion while Jungeun sings a drunken rendition of _Last Christmas._ It’s beautiful, and Chaewon actually wipes a tear from her eye.

“Hold this for a sec,” Jinsol murmurs, shoving her gift into Hyunjin’s hands and marching off. Hyunjin watches with wide eyes as she grabs Sooyoung and pulls her into the nearest room with a door.

She stares at the homemade coupon book, already opened to the first page: _One free dinner tomorrow at 7 pm._

Oh, now she’s interested. She flips to the next page: _One free car ride to previously mentioned dinner._

_One free evening stroll down by the Han River._

_One free hand-holding session (should be used simultaneously with the evening stroll)._

_One free kiss._

_One free second date._

_One free third date._

_One free girlfriend._

Hyunjin laughs in pure delight because who knew Ha Sooyoung could be such a romantic? And Jinsol probably ate this stuff up. She’s always been a sucker for disgustingly sweet gestures like this. Actually, she’s probably cashing in her free kiss coupon in that office room right now.

“Hyunjin!” Vivi calls, holding out a neatly wrapped box. It seems like she’s finally gotten rid of the pigeon problem and has gone back to passing out the presents like the dutiful Santa she’s supposed to be.

“Did you get your present yet?” Hyunjin asks after grabbing her gift. It’s decently sized and sorta heavy, and she resists the childish instinct to shake it.

Vivi smirks. “A two week-long trip to Hong Kong. We’ll spend part of it visiting my family, and the other part sightseeing and enjoying our time together. No work allowed.” She nods at Haseul, a fond smile playing at her lips. “Looks like that idiot was actually listening when I was complaining about our lack of alone-time recently.”

“I guess romance isn’t dead after all.”

“I guess not.” There’s a glint in Vivi’s eye that makes Hyunjin slightly uneasy for some reason. Then Vivi blinks and the strange look is gone. “You should probably open your gift before the karaoke session starts. You know how crazy it gets.”

“Right, thanks.” Hyunjin makes her way to her safe corner. Jinsol hasn’t come back yet, and she has a feeling that it’ll be like that for a while. She shudders and tries to get her mind off that unsavory image by tearing off the wrapping paper to her gift.

“No way,” she breathes, her hands stilling once most of the paper is peeled away. A coffee machine. Someone got her a coffee machine. 

“Merry Christmas,” someone speaks up, and Hyunjin slowly turns to see Heejin leaning against the wall and looking at her, a Santa hat crookedly sitting on her head. “I hope it’s better than the last one.”

“You ruined the surprise,” Hyunjin says before her brain can catch up with her mouth.

“Sorry?” Heejin doesn’t sound very sorry.

“This has to be way out of the price range.”

“It wasn’t,” says Heejin, but when Hyunjin raises her eyebrow, she smiles sheepishly and shrugs. “It’s me paying you back for the hotel. And think of it more as a half-gift, half-apology.”

“Half-apology?”

“For breaking the other coffee machine.”

Hyunjin gasps. “I knew it!” She looks around the room to gloat to Jinsol, then realizes that Jinsol is still with Sooyoung in the other room. She settles with sending a light glare in Heejin’s direction. “Two and a half weeks without caffeine, Jeon Heejin.”

“Sorry,” Heejin says. Again, she doesn’t sound very sorry. Heejin pushes off the wall and takes a step closer to Hyunjin, leaning in so she could be heard over the screeching and singing and Jiwoo’s accordion. “How can I make it up to you?”

She smells like vanilla. “I have a pretty good idea,” Hyunjin murmurs, taking Heejin’s wrist. “Follow me.”

  
  


Jeon Heejin has to be perfect at anything and everything apparently.

That’s the only thing that runs through Hyunjin’s mind as she watches Heejin absolutely destroy Mariah Carey’s _All I Want For Christmas._ Really though, Hyunjin doesn’t know what she expected when she demanded Heejin to participate in karaoke today.

 _“Cuz I just want you here tonight, holding on to me so tight!”_ Heejin belts into the microphone. _“What more can I do?”_

Next to her, Jiwoo finishes twirling Jungeun and attempts to lower her into one of those fancy dips, but she succeeds only in dropping Jungeun on the floor instead. To her credit, Jungeun gets right back up and continues dancing with minimal complaint.

Heejin looks over and locks eyes with Hyunjin. A smile spreads across her face. _“All I want for Christmas is youuu, baby!”_

Heat rises in her cheeks, and she hopes it’s too dark for anyone to see.

“Wow,” someone says right beside Hyunjin’s ear. “The tension is suffocating.”

“What, between you and Sooyoung?” Hyunjin shoots back immediately, cocking an eyebrow at Jinsol. “You’re about a year and a half late to the party. How was sucking faces with Sooyoung, by the way?”

Jinsol doesn’t rise to the bait, just laughs and pats Hyunjin’s head. “Just don’t forget to watch where you’re going. It’s dangerous out there.”

“The worst thing I have to fear is going deaf because of all these dumb Christmas songs,” Hyunjin murmurs. And maybe Yeojin unleashing frogs in the office, but she’s pretty sure that was a one-time thing. 

“Sure.”

The hair on the back of Hyunjin’s neck rises at the tone Jinsol uses. “Jinsol…”

“Gotta go,” Jinsol suddenly says, and Hyunjin can practically _hear_ the shit-eating grin plastered across her face. “Sooyoung’s face isn’t gonna suck itself, right?” She practically sprints away once she says it, leaving Hyunjin gaping at the Jinsol-shaped blur. She didn’t even know Jinsol could run that fast.

“Jinsol!”

  
  


It’s only thirty minutes later that Hyunjin realizes she has a lot more to fear than going deaf from bad music and the attack of Im Yeojin’s frog army. Getting caught under the mistletoe with Jeon Heejin in the presence of her crazy co-workers is a pretty big example.

“Mistletoe!” Jiwoo screeches, pointing at the tiny plant above their heads. “You have to kiss now!”

Someone — she’s ninety-nine percent sure it’s Chaewon, judging from the dainty voice — starts to chant, “Kiss, kiss, kiss”, and it’s not long before everyone else joins in.

“Bullshit!” Hyunjin splutters. “Someone _slingshotted_ the mistletoe over us while we were talking!”

Hyejoo nods proudly and waves around her weapon. “My aim is impeccable.”

“How’d you even get it to stick to the ceiling like that?”

“Lots and lots of tape.”

“Mistletoe is mistletoe,” another voice cuts in, and Hyunjin looks at Vivi, their only voice of reason in times like these, in betrayal. “And rules are rules. You gotta kiss.”

The chanting grows louder after Vivi makes her decision, almost sounding like some sort of cult, and Hyunjin’s two seconds away from tearing the mistletoe down and shoving it down someone’s throat.

“Hyunjin,” Heejin quietly says before Hyunjin does exactly that. “You know they’re never gonna let us go.”

“There should be a rule against forcing people under the mistletoe,” Hyunjin grumbles, downing the rest of her drink. “What about consent? Is that not important anymore? I’m filing an HR complaint.”

“I’m pretty sure mistletoe isn’t the best direction to go while arguing for consent.”

Hyunjin sighs. “You don’t have to do this.”

“Neither do you.” 

“I know.”

“I know too.”

“Then…” Hyunjin swallows thickly. “Then should we? Like you said, they’ll never let us go unless we do.”

Heejin tilts her head. She’s still flushed from her three-song concert, her eyes are bright, and the room begins to feel a lot warmer all of a sudden. “Kiss?”

Hyunjin nods.

“Okay,” Heejin murmurs. She leans in. The chanting fades into the background, and Hyunjin closes her eyes, her heart pounding in her ears.

A soft kiss is pressed to her cheek. It lingers there for a long second, then disappears. Hyunjin’s eyes flutter open to find Heejin staring at her, still impossibly close.

“What the fuck was that?” Sooyoung groans, and the moment passes as quickly as the kiss did.

“A kiss,” Heejin says, tearing her eyes away from Hyunjin’s. “That totally counts.”

There’s some discontented grumbling among their co-workers, but they know not to push their luck. Hyunjin watches carefully as they begin to disperse, eyeing Hyejoo especially close. There’s no way she’s going to let herself be caught under the mistletoe slingshot twice in the same night.

Heejin clears her throat. “I should probably go,” she says. “I’m probably gonna pass out on the floor if I stay here any longer.”

“How unsanitary,” Hyunjin absentmindedly responds, touching her tingling cheek. When she realizes what she’s doing, she shoves her hand behind her back, her face growing warm.

Heejin smiles when she catches the movement. “I’ll see you later, Hyunjin.”

Hyunjin nods dumbly, and Heejin gives her another smile before disappearing out the door.

“Hyunjin,” Jinsol says when she finds Hyunjin standing under the mistletoe alone. “Where’s Heejin.”

“She left a few minutes ago.”

“Did you at least kiss her before she left?”

“Kiss her?”

“Yes, kiss Heejin.” 

“Kiss Heejin? But we already kissed. You saw it.”

Jinsol sighs. “You’re an idiot, Kim Hyunjin.”

“I’m an idiot,” she repeats. Then it dawns on her. “I’m an idiot.”

  
  


It’s snowing outside, a nice, picturesque snowfall that blankets everything with a soft layer of white and makes it seem a little more beautiful.

Hyunjin finds Heejin standing at the bus stop, coat wrapped tightly around her body. “Heejin.”

Heejin turns around, her brows furrowed. “Hyunjin? You ride the bus?”

“No. I came to see you, actually.”

She keeps walking until she’s right in front of Heejin, close enough for her to see the snowflakes gathered on Heejin’s eyelashes. Heejin blinks up at her.

“I can’t believe this,” Hyunjin says under her breath because this is legitimately the cliche of all cliches.

“What—“

Hyunjin reaches up to cradle Heejin’s jaw, effectively shutting Heejin up. She closes her eyes and leans in.

Heejin’s lips are soft and warm, a warmth that spreads throughout Hyunjin’s body and right to the tips of her toes. She vaguely registers Heejin’s fingers curling in her shirt and bunching up the fabric by her waist as she presses herself closer. Heejin lets out a small gasp, one that Hyunjin swallows as she deepens the kiss. 

It’s perfect, right up until Heejin slips under Hyunjin’s shirt and presses her icy fingers into Hyunjin’s skin.

“Shit,” Hyunjin hisses, breaking the kiss and scowling at Heejin.

Heejin looks up at her, eyes wide and innocent. “What?” At Hyunjin’s pointed glare, she laughs and winds Hyunjin’s scarf around her hand, pulling her closer and closer.

“Asshole,” she mumbles, but she allows it to happen anyway.

She feels Heejin grin against her lips. 

  
  


“Are you ever gonna give me back my stapler?” Heejin asks a few days later, her finger tracing random patterns on Hyunjin’s hip while they lounge on Hyunjin’s couch and watch _The Grinch._

Hyunjin stiffens at the question and keeps her eyes trained on the TV. “Your what?”

“My stapler, Kim Hyunjin.”

“Um…” She rubs her neck and smiles innocently. “You might wanna check the fridge in the break room?”

“You hid it in the fridge?” Heejin’s voice is amused, and she ghosts her fingers down Hyunjin’s side, making Hyunjin squirm at the ticklish feeling. “That’s boring. I expected better.”

“Sorry to disappoint,” Hyunjin says, turning to hide her smile in Heejin’s sweater. No use in ruining the surprise, right? 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy (late) New Year everyone! If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed and special thanks to dancingqxxeen for requesting the fic! I hope I did the prompt justice
> 
> Here's my [Twitter](https://twitter.com/softchaeyuhours) and [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/softchaeyuhours?t=1583653043)


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